Hamlet's madness may have started out as feigned but as the play went on it became real, he was the cause of his own madness. At the beginning of the play, he uses his feigned madness to distract everyone from the fact that the ghost of his father told him that Claudius killed him. Throughout the play, Hamlet's morality staggers, for example, at the beginning before he meets the ghost of his father he is very moral, in the middle at the Mousetrap he is incredibly immoral and at the end in the graveyard he is a very moral character and even feels remorse for the dead.
At the beginning of this play, Hamlet didn’t know that his uncle killed his father but he was suspicious, this is very easily seen when Hamlet says “A little more than kin a little less than kind” (1, 2, 65) He is showing that he understands that his uncle is in the wrong for marrying his brother's wife so soon after he died but he also knows that his uncle is still a part of his family. The way that this line flows, makes it very memorable and adds to the devastation that it is really trying to achieve. Hamlet is saying that his own uncle, a member of his family, is someone who he doesn’t trust or want to be around. Hamlet's mother and uncle got married a few short weeks after the passing of his Father, Hamlet was still in mourning when they were getting married. Therefore it makes sense for Hamlet to be feeling a little uneasy about the situation as a whole.
Closer to the middle of the play Hamlet decides to put on a play that essentially mimics his father's murder, to see if his Uncle Claudius would feel any remorse and prove his guilt to Hamlet. At the beginning and throughout the play he nicknamed The Mousetrap he tries to distract his mother, Gertrude, so that she doesn’t interfere with his plan to catch his uncle. This is very clear when Gertrude asks Hamlet to sit next to her and he replies with “No good mother. Heres metal more attractive.” (3, 2, 100) He is stating that he wants to sit next to Ophelia even though he claimed he fell out of love with her, he is using his madness to get what he wants but after the play when he knows Claudius killed his father the madness takes over Hamlet.
Polonius was already dead and Hamlet had already allowed his feigned madness to take over himself. When Hamlet killed Polonius he felt practically no remorse even though Polonius was a dear friend of his family for a very long time. This was the reason why it is so shocking what happened when Hamlet and Horatio were at the graveyard. “That skull had a tongue in it and could sing once.”(5, 1, 70) At this point in the play, Hamlet has been truly mad for a fairly long time now, since the turning point for him going mad was killing Polonius in the third act. He’s watching this grave digger throwing skulls over his shoulder as if they were candy wrappers, and he is feeling remorse for them even going as far as to humanize them and saying that they could once sing. This is Hamlet's anagnorisis, he is realizing that his old ways were wrong and immoral.
In conclusion, it is clear that Hamlet's madness begins as feigned and progressively becomes real and takes over his life. At the beginning of the play, Hamlet doesn’t know that his uncle killed his father but he still understands that his and Gertrude's rather quick marriage means there's something up. In Act three Hamlet put’s on a play that mimics the way his father was murdered and when Claudius showed his guilt he had the proof he needs to murder him, he then talks to his Mother and kills Polonius and feels no remorse because of it, this is when we see his madness truly take over. When Hamlet is in the graveyard with Horatio and they are watching this man throw skulls over his shoulder like they’re nothing; Hamlet is feeling remorse towards them, he is realizing that his madness was completely unnecessary and immoral. Throughout the play, Hamlet goes through this emotional roller coaster that his madness brings him on and when he finally dies he realizes it was all for nothing.
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